State of the art optical telecommunication and data communications systems often include elements that employ removable optical interface modules, which in turn provide configuration flexibility in terms of transmission rate, range, protocol, and so forth as well as improved serviceability. These modules, in general, are used in optical telecommunications and data communications equipment, to provide optical-to-electrical conversion of signals, and vice versa. Standardization of these optical modules within the telecommunications and data communications industries has resulted in a wide variety of these modules being available from many vendors and having markedly different operating capabilities while the modules themselves are of the same general size and shape when viewed from the outside. The characteristics of a given module, however, must be compatible with the application of the telecommunications equipment in which it is to be installed. Therefore it is very useful to have a priori knowledge of this compatibility in order to provision and continue telecommunications and data communications services. Moreover, it is useful to generate and maintain inventory control for modules that are stored as replacement spares.
Due to the very small size of these modules, it is often not practical to list all relevant operating parameters on the exterior of the module housing. FIG. 1 illustrates a first exemplary optical module 100 with a limited amount of relatively small text 102 which can be difficult to read. FIG. 2 illustrates another exemplary optical module 104 with even less information printed thereon than the module of FIG. 1. FIG. 3 illustrates a third module 108 shown next to a dime 110 to give a perspective of the actual size of such devices.
Optical telecommunications and data communications systems generally require a cumbersome set of procedures and commands in order to retrieve and display characteristics of installed pluggable optical modules. These systems typically do not provide means to create and maintain an inventory of pluggable optical modules. Furthermore, due to the complexity of these optical telecommunications systems, it is not easy to perform the tasks necessary to obtain characteristic data from the pluggable optical modules. A simple mistake in entry of the cumbersome commands could result in serious undesired side effects including disruption of service to other customers.
In view of the above, it should be appreciated that there is a need for a better way and/or device for obtaining optical module information from existing modules. This is particularly important to field service people where insertion of the wrong optical module can be time consuming to detect and possibly harmful to the hardware being serviced. There is also a need for improved inventory control and methods and apparatus given the relatively high cost of such modules and the ease by which mistakes in identifying different modules based on the information printed thereon can occur. Furthermore, going to a service site with the wrong module or troubleshooting problems caused by use of a wrong module can be costly in terms of service technician time and downtime of the unit to be serviced.